February 20, 2013

Source:dw2 — February 20, 2013 | David William Wood

Everyone should read the books of Ray Kurzweil, who has recently become an Engineering Director at Google. Kurzweil’s book makes it clear that: Within our lifetimes, human beings will no longer be human beings; there are multiple accelerating rates of change in several different disciplines; The three main disciplines contributing to the singularity are nanotech, AI, and biotech; All are transforming our understanding of the human body and,… read more

February 4, 2013

Source:Forbes — February 4, 2013 | Todd Wilms

On technology: Ray Kurzweil,“20 years from now, biotechnology — reprogramming biology as an information process — will be in a mature phase. We will routinely turn off genes that promote disease and aging such as the fat insulin receptor gene that tells the fat cells to hold onto excess fat. We will be able to add genes that protect us from diseases such as cancer and heart disease.

August 26, 2013

The initiative’s two main science projects are focused largely on transhumanism, a multidisciplinary approach to analyzing the dynamic interplay between humanity and the acceleration of technology.

Specifically, the 2045 Initiative’s projects seek to (1) enable an individual’s personality to be transferred to a more advanced non-biological substrate, and (2) extend life to the point of immortality, and those skeptical about the likelihood of achieving these goals… read more

March 17, 2014

Source:CNET — March 13, 2014 | Eric Mack

Time is our only truly finite resource, although Google and people like Ray Kurzweil seem to be working to change that.

My time in the wilderness had turned me from the hardest-core digital devotee into someone more like my grandmother, a remarkably well-informed octogenarian who has still never touched a keyboard to this day, at least to my knowledge. [...]

June 29, 2012

In a wide-ranging interview, Ray Kurzweil and The Wall Street Journal‘s Alan Murray discussed advances in artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and what it means to be human.

They discussed pattern recognizers in our neocortex, machine intelligence (such as Watson), when machines will have human-level intelligence and consciousness (by 2029, the prospects and ethics of human-machine merger, and life extension.

August 23, 2013

Source:The Conversation — August 20, 2013 | Kathleen Richardson

Ray Kurzweil is another case in point. In books such as The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, Kurzweil is forever predicting that we will merge with machines and be able to upload our “complete” consciousness into machines. This idea is emerging as the next big challenge in robotics but it could equally be viewed as a basic feature of human cultural existence.

March 9, 2011

Source:The Huffington Post — March 9, 2011 | Jason Silva

Ray Kurzweil has become a pop culture phenomenon. The Singularity thesis has gone mainstream, and for those who still have any doubts, look no farther than the recent Time Magazine cover story, “2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal.” Barry Ptolemy’s film, Transcendent Man, is the absolute best cinematic exploration of Ray Kurzweil and his paradigm shifting ideas. If you didn’t have the patience to read Singularity… read more